Greetings from the F.N.G.

That's FRIENDLY New Guy, 

It's my pleasure and privilege to be invited to post at Liberty's Torch. I've not been a regular here, so I ask the reader's pardon in advance in case I should inadvertently violate the Customs and Traditions of this Space. I went back and sampled the posts from the early days of the blog, and some more recent. 

I am familiar with the work and thought of your proprietor, the Rt. Hon. Francis W. Porretto; "back in the day" he was kind enough to allow me to bring my eclectic and ironic observations to Eternity Road. Fran is many things: He is large, he contains multitudes. While on that subject:

Trippers and askers surround me,

People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward
     and city I live in, or the nation,
The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies, authors
     old and new,
My dinner, dress, associates, looks, compliments, dues,
The real or fancied indifference of some man or woman I
     love,
The sickness of one of my folks or of myself, or ill-doing or
     loss or lack of money, or depressions or exaltations,
Battles, the horrors of fratricidal war, the fever of doubtful
     news, the fitful events;
These come to me days and nights and go from me again,
But they are not the Me myself.

###

But they are not the Me myself.

Here are some of the topics I look to cover here:

Who is "Me myself" in the current age, the age of swipe right and plastic surgery and cyberbullying and Abilify and, soon, sexbots? Can a man be "free" when he has no core sense of himself from his family, his tribe, his nation, his religious faith? Can he have his "liberty" when his attention is being constantly, insidiously drawn to expertly-engineered advertising designed to make him feel a lack, a lack of something promised to be filled by just one more purchase of a product?

What's needed more than anything else now is sanity, clarity, people trained to recognize the influencers and influences around them and be intelligent and masterful despite it. We have the power in our minds and index fingers to turn off the news, or mute it for awhile, to retrain our memories despite technologies that surely erode them, to rediscover the wisdom of our ancestors.

If we're to keep, renew and enlarge our liberty we must do more than battle in the public and political arena, though that, too, is important. I was a "political professional" for more than ten years, in the sense that politicians paid me to help get them elected, and subsequently to help them look good. That arena is important, but it's not everything; it may not, in the end be the most vital ground to win.

Individual liberty requires individuals, with a measure of steel in their spines. Or hammered iron. That's my take on one component that allows Liberty's Torch to continue to burn. I hope to make some small contribution here, in that regard.